Scrap Metal
by jakelovesyuna
Summary: Probationary Agent Philander Haley is given his very first case: The strange appearance of some vehicle pieces and a marines base access card in a suburban area in DC. However, when it is revealed that the marine is the nephew of SECNAV Sarah Porter, Director Vance assigns Senior Agent Anthony DiNozzo to assist in finding out what happened.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so this is my first Fanfic in over four years. This is something which i have been plotting for a while so please enjoy and don't forget to share your thoughts :)**

**EDIT: I have gone though and corrected all the little mistakes that and somehow managed to escape three proofreads. As per some constructive advice, i am have gone ahead and made some other changes. Now with 95% less 'would'.**

The NCIS squad room was always quiet in a morning. Surprisingly quiet. Most agents did not arrive until around eight-thirty in the morning. This wasn't the case however for probationary agent Philander Haley. Haley had been in the office since the early hours; struggling to sleep had forced him out of his bed and into work. Haley had made sure that he was diligent in his duties as a supporting probationary agent. His duties mainly include assisting in other squads investigations whenever necessary, commonly being called the 'floater' agent due to him never being assigned to a specific squad to work with. Sometimes the young agent preferred this; you were just given orders and you did exactly what you were told and if something went amiss at the end of the investigation you broke up and moved on. The other side of him really wanted to join a team, a couple of months ago the other 'probie' agents had been dished out and assigned more permanent positions, shuffled into other senior teams or grouped together into a new team led by a senior agent. The Director however, had decided to keep Haley where he was, a decision that even to this day doesn't make sense. The director had arrived early himself. Haley had the pleasure of riding the elevator up with him. They both spoke a polite hello and rode up in silence, just like normal. It seemed to be a NCIS tradition to ride the elevator in silence in the morning. Maybe it would be easier to take the stairs from now on. It was not peculiar to see the director arrive early in the morning. For the past couple of weeks he had even been coming in at three in the morning.

Haley sighed as he looked at the numerous case files he was searching through. He had been given the task of trying to find commonality between some old NIS cases and a new case which was being investigated. It wasn't something interesting like murder, it was a simple scam that was being used to get marines and fellow navy personnel to sign away parts of their veterans benefits to charitable causes. Similar scams had been used in the past and the team investigating it suspected that someone from one of the old cases was responsible for this sudden resurgence. The job wasn't difficult thanks to his working management system; the old case files on the left, the new case files on the right. After spending a few hours scrounging around old case files and badly written paperwork with faded and aged ink, he had found what the team was looking for; a connection. Not a huge one, but one that would give them a lead and hopefully a break in the case. Haley had already compiled his findings into a precise and well written document on his computer, taking care to ensure that he had earmarked all of his references for easy finding with small Post-it notes with notation numbers like: "2.1 and 3.5.4". Haley was always anal about organisation. If everything was laid out correctly, anyone could come along and pick the case up with ease. Haley would get up and start walking towards the printer. The whir of the rollers echoed in the mainly empty squad room. The printer quickly spat out the 6 page document and Haley scooped it up in his hands and scaned it quickly before walking to his desk. He dropped it on his desk as he sat down. Before he could get comfortable however, his desk phone began to ring. Haley would eye it suspiciously. Who would call him at this time? He would look over at the caller ID with the words "DirVan" appearing on screen. With haste Haley would pick up the phone and answer

"Director, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Haley would lean back against his desk chair as he spoke, awaiting the response.

"I need you to come up to my office, I have something for you" The sentence was formal, well spoken and direct. Before Haley could reply the director put the phone down, leaving Haley listening to the phone dial tone. Putting the receiver down Haley took a second to adjust his tie before making the walk to the stairs. Haley briskly climbed the stairs, taking the moment to enjoy the view of the nearly deserted squad room as he turned to go up the second flight of stairs, reaching the top, he would maintain his swift and brisk pace as he advanced towards the directors office. Reaching the silver door Haley took a deep breath. It felt like he was at school and being called up to the principals office. He would knock on the door twice, before Haley could even put his hand back down again he could heard the director call him in. Haley entered quietly closing the door behind him.

He had only ever been in the directors office twice before: once on his appointment and once when he was told he was going to stay as a floating agent. The director sat at his chair, not getting up and was glancing at a file. He lowered the document so that he could see Haley in the corner of his eye before putting it down on the desk. Haley strode over so that he was standing in front of the desk. It most certainly did feel like he was back in school again.

"I have a job for you to do" The director leaned back slightly and observed Haley carefully for a second. Haley was wondering what the job was, he was imaging huge paperwork trail for the director. After all there was a lot of paperwork to do when you are a director, but why do it yourself when you can delegate.

"Yes Sir?" Haley responded, waiting for the words paperwork to come out of the directors mouth.

"I have a case for you" The director smiled lightly as he observed the reaction of Haley. For Haley the news didn't sink in right away. The word paperwork never appeared and for those few brief milliseconds Haley was speechless.

"For me? A case, but I am on my own" Haley inwardly curse himself for that. It was like he was trying to give away this once in a lifetime chance.

"I know that. However, this is a small case and I think you are ready to do some field work of your own. Metro found two vehicle parts and a base access card for a marine at Quantico. I want you to go over there and see if you can find out why a marines access card was found lodged inside this wreckage. I don't expect this to be anything, but I need someone to go check it out" Leon eyed Haley carefully again, watching to see how relaxed he was and how he was taking the information in.

"If it was found in wreckage doesn't that mean that a marine could be injured, missing or dead? Shouldn't this be a MCRT case?" Yet again, Haley trying to palm the case off on someone else. Haley would once more curse himself.

"Like I said, I am not sure what it is yet. If it does actually turn out that we have a dead marine then yes I will have the MCRT take over, but right now I need someone on the ground collating the facts. Clear?"

"Crystal Sir" It was starting to dawn on Haley what he was being asked to do. He was going to out to collect evidence, trying to work out if there was a case or not. He was doing his own field work. Haley couldn't help but smile to himself.

"Good, I have sent the details to your email. Just remember, take it slow and don't jump to conclusions, let the evidence do the work for you" The Director picked his papers back up and continued reading, signalling to Haley that it was time to go. Haley walked out of the office, closing the door, still smiling to himself. He turned and glanced out of the window behind the Directors sectary desk, noting that the sun was now rising and the city was coming to life. Haley then started making his way towards the garage, back down the flight of stairs and into the elevator. Once he was there he would sign out one of the black agency vehicles and be on his way.

The case location, or the 'scene' was in a nice suburban area of DC. It reminded Haley of where he used to live when he was growing up, pleasant sprawling green space with nice neatly laid out houses and small apartment buildings, along with trees dotted down either side of the road. On first impressions it seemed like a strange place to dump a few vehicle parts. As he was driving down the road, he spotted a police car and pulled over. Looking out of the car window, he observed the wreckage. It had been cut off from the outside world with police tape running around a few nearby trees and a police officer was guarding it, awaiting his arrival. Haley climbed out of the car and started advancing towards the scene. As he got closer he decided the term wreckage was maybe not the best word to describe what he could see. From a distance there only seemed to be two auto parts in the pile and of that neither looked damaged. As he got closer the police officer would start walking towards him.

"You the one from NCIS? Been waiting here for a while. Can you wrap this all up?" Haley pulled out his ID showing it as well as flipping it over to show his badge, just to make sure that all the formalities had been dealt with.

"Yeah, Probationary Agent Haley. I got this, you can go"

"They sent a probie then? Wow, you guys must be short staffed" Haley wanted to make a remark about how he had been chosen by the director personally to investigate this incident but decided to let it slide this time.

"Something like that. I was one of the very few people still up" By the time he had finished his sentence the officer had already gotten halfway to his cruiser, clearly not wasting any time in wanting to leave. Haley would look back at the officer one more time as he climbed into the vehicle, then focused back on what he was here to do. He mentally ran through his head what he needed to do and in what order:

_1) Wear Gloves_

_2) Take photos of the scene and anything of interesting_

_3) Process evidence_

_4) Neatly store evidence for transportation back to HQ_

Gloves. Part one. Haley searched inside his pockets, looking for the gloves that he had sworn he had packed in his pocket before he left the vehicle. He would mutter a curse to himself when he began to realise that he hadn't packed his gloves. At that moment he also came to the realisation that he hadn't bought the camera out from the vehicle either and warranted himself another mumbled curse. He span around on his heels and began the walk back to the vehicle, taking the time to observe the area around him once more. The area did look like a suburban dream, the houses were immaculate and white, the driveways were crisp and well kept and every garden was well kept and trimmed. As he approached the vehicle he noticed that several people were now leaving the house, the majority of which were wearing suits and were getting ready for their morning commute to the office. No one seemed to notice the police tape, or the vehicle parts that were littering their greenery.

With the camera and gloves in tow now, Haley had gotten back to his crime scene and began the process of searching for evidence. Not that was a lot to search for, so far there were 3 things he had found: The first was the bumper of a vehicle. Back in it's prime it would have been a shiny piece of metal, but now that gleam had gone as grime and rust had taken hold and aged the poor thing. Haley was struggling to make out if it was a front or back bumper The license plate was also missing making identifying the suspect vehicle impossible. The second part was some form of bodywork. It was hard to tell what it was. It was roughly L- shaped and looked like it it bolted to something from the various holes on one of the sides. The red paintwork had also lost its crisp shine like the bumper, and rust was also starting to take hold here. The final thing he found was the marines base access card. The card belonged to Staff Sergeant Keefe Eliott and that was all it really told him. The access cards never listed home addresses so Haley wasn't sure at this point as to where the marine lived. He re-observed the scene once more looking around the ground for hints or clues that could shed some more light on the situation. He couldn't find anything however. Sighing at himself he walked back to the car to get some wrapping plastic to wrap the evidence in. He planned to take the parts to forensics and see if there were any fingerprints on the vehicle parts that would give away whose car it was. After he had finished wrapping the parts and putting the marines access card in an evidence bag he had the fun task of carrying them back to his vehicle. The big problem was that these parts were huge, and trying to get them into a sedan was proving difficult. Eventually after thirty minutes of putting seats down and twisting and pushing, he managed to get the parts secured and safely tucked inside. He then jumped into the drivers seat, looking back to inspect the parts for a few brief seconds, before beginning the drive back to NCIS.

The drive back had been horrid for Haley. He had got caught up in the DC rush hour traffic and his journey back was a full fifty minutes longer than it had been when he left for the scene. Still, the constant time he spent being stuck behind cars and being motionless gave him time to do some case reflection. He spent some time mulling over the facts in his head.

_ * At some point during the night two pieces of an unknown vehicle were left in the middle of a suburban area with a Staff Sergeants base access card lodged between the two._

_ * The vehicle was old and had signs of wear and rust on both the bumper and the strange piece of bodywork._

_ * The whereabouts of marine Keefe Eliott is unknown._

As his mind began to process the information and he slowly was making his way back to NCIS, he began to realise that he had no idea as to what to do next. He was a probationary agent on his first case so of course he wasn't going to have everything come to him naturally. Suddenly though, Haley had a flash of inspiration. His head poured in with ideas and theories as to what to do next and how this case would solve itself. In this moment of disorganised chaos of ideas, the advice the director told him seemed to ring true: _take it slow and don't jump to conclusions, let the evidence do the work for you._ Haley would calm his mind back down and do exactly what the director told him to do, make the evidence work for him. His evidence so far was two vehicle parts and an access card. Not an awful lot to go on. He was going to take the parts back to forensics to see if fingerprints could be found. The id card didn't give him anything to go, except that the marine was stationed at Quantico. Surely then he had to have a CO? Maybe Staff Sergeant Eliott didn't report for duty this morning? Slowly a plan of action was forming in his head, and not a moment to soon as he was rolling into the NCIS motor pool. And now the fun task of carrying the parts to forensics began.

The ping of the elevator signalled that Haley had reached his destination; the forensics lab. He hadn't been to the lab many times, only a few times to transport evidence and get papers signed. The lab was a small one, but then again it only had to be used for one person and in retrospect you could get at least another three scientists in there easily. The first thing Haley heard was the music, even before he got into the lab. This sort of music didn't bother him but he knew it drove some people around here crazy if they had to go inside. Stepping inside he looked around for a minute before noticing the female huddled over the computer screen. He stood only a few steps away from the doorway and waited there for a few seconds. He knew that forensic specialist Abigail Sciuto knew he was there, she was taking her time. Just under a minute later she would spin around and smile at him.

"Well look at you, mister got my own case now. News around here travels fast. I guess that means you aren't here to get me to sign more evidence forms" Haley did however hold up a clipboard, a mock disappointed look on his face.

"I do have an evidence form, but this time it is my evidence form. I have two pieces of vehicle bodywork downstairs, I was wondering if you could work your magic on them?" Abby walked over and grabbed the clipboard and took a look at it.

"I don't do magic down here, I do science. And sure I can help, I just finished doing some work for Gibbs. I will call you when I know something. Do you know anything about these parts?" Abby placed the clipboard down on her metallic table and placed one of her hands on her hip.

"Nope nothing, they were just left in the middle of a nice grassy area in the middle of a suburban paradise. No sign of a crash and the parts just look old, not damaged. I can't even tell you what one of those body parts even is truth be told"

"Well fear not then, for I am here to use logic and science to save the day. Go and investigate, I will call you when I have gotten something" Haley turned on his heels and left the lab as Abby pretty much shooed him out, waving as he turned around and entered the elevator. He politely raised his hand to signal he was waving back as the elevator doors closed and started to take him back to the squad room.

The squad room was now fully staffed, a hub of crime fighting activity and not the desolate skeleton it was in the early hours of this morning. People were shuffling from desk to desk, finding out and sharing information as they were trying to break cases. The entire MCRT team had arrived. Haley had spotted them as he was walking across to his own desk. His desk was behind the MCRT teams desk, only two away from the legendary Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The quickest route to his desk was to cut between the MCRT desks, however he discovered on his first day it was very awkward when people stare at you as you walk. Instead, Haley would walk around the stairs leading to MTAC and get to his desk that way. Sitting down he smiled gracefully feeling right at home with the comfort of his government issue desk chair. He checked his phone to see if he had any calls off the director, then he checked his email to double check if there was anything else he needed to do.

Haley knew however he had to get back on the case, he sat at his computer and opened up the NCIS database program, staring back at him was a black screen with plenty of green text and boxes, giving him varying options. He had spent most of his time dealing with paper evidence and old case files, so he was still rusty at using the system. He would _'umm'_ and _'ahh'_ for a few minutes, pressing several buttons as he tried to work out what he was doing. Eventually he managed to bring up Staff Sergeant Keefe Eliott's details up and work out who is commanding officer was; a one Master Sergeant Bristol Clifton. He got up from his seat, ready to make his way to the motor pool once more. As he got up he saw Director Vance exit the elevator and start walking towards his office. However, instead of going ahead and going upto his office and he turned and walked into the MCRT area, stopping halfway through and hailing Haley.

"Agent Haley..." Haley stood up straight, moving around his desk To stand in front of the Director properly, as a sign of respect. Before Haley had a chance to speak he noticed that a woman was approaching behind director. The woman had brown hair and was wearing light grey female business attire. At first Haley struggled to think of who it was, however that question was quickly answered when she passed Gibbs desk. Gibbs would nod to the woman

"Madame Secretary" Upon hearing this Vance turned around to make room for her to stand next to him.

"Madame Secretary..." Vance gestured his hand out towards Haley "This is Probationary Agent Philander Haley. Haley this is the Secretary of the Navy Miss Sarah Porter" The Secretary held her hand out and Haley gladly accepted it, giving it a gentle but respectful shake.

"I haven't miss behaved already have I?" Haley asked, somewhat concerned. He was fairly confident that he hadn't done anything wrong. He was already going through his head and trying to see if there was any event he could recall, right before Director Vance interrupted his train of thought.

"No, no, you are doing fine. I am just interested in your progress from this morning. What did you find?" It was at this point Haley noticed that Miss Porter was looking concerned, She looked deeply concerned, in fact she looked more worried than concerned, almost as if Haley was about to reveal some long awaited information.

"Well, there wasn't much really. Two vehicle parts, both old but neither were badly damaged, just rusty. No signs of a crash at all and no evidence at the scene which seems to suggest why those parts were placed in the middle of a suburban area or why a marines access card belonging to a Staff Sergeant Keefe Eliott was left their either" Haley was observing both the Director and the Secretary. Vance did not reveal anything through his body language, years of experience was clearly showing. The Secretary on the other hand looked the same as she did a few seconds ago, it was almost like she couldn't decide if the information she had heard was making things better or worse. Before Vance had a chance to speak however the Secretary did.

"I am going to come out and say in bluntly, Keefe is my nephew. He joined the marines as soon as he was able and every time he is here in DC I promised my sister to look out for him in case of emergencies" The Secretary looked really concerned now. And why wouldn't she? Something could of happened. Haley wanted inwardly to say something that would console her, however that could just be giving her false hope.

"Have you heard form your nephew since last night?" Vance questioned , beating Haley to the punch with a vital question.

"I tried calling him when I found out this morning and got no answer from his cell" Vance was yet again quick to snipe in.

"So what's your next move Haley?" Haley didn't even think. He knew exactly what his response was.

"Get over to Quantico and speak to his CO and see if he reported today for duty" Vance nodded, showing approval at his answer. Seemed like Haley was picking things up rather well.

"However, Probationary agents are not allowed inside Quantico on their own..." Vance turned around to look at Gibbs "... Gibbs, I need to borrow one of your agents to accompany Agent Haley" Gibbs nodded, not even looking up from the papers he was reading.

"DiNozzo" He called out, and the brown haired suave agent looked over at Gibbs, although it had been apparent that he had been listening in on the conversation at the side.

"Yes boss?" He replied, knowing exactly what Gibbs was going to say.

"Grab your gear, accompany Agent Haley to Quantico" DiNozzo got up to grab his rucksack and threw over his one shoulder and walked around his desk.

"Got it boss, escort Agent Haley around Quantico" Haley grabbed his coat from his chair and walked past the Director and the Secretary, for once taking the short cut through the MCRT office and past DiNozzo. As the duo began walking to the elevator Director Vance would have one more thing to say.

"Agent Haley. Keep doing what you are doing now and you will do fine. And also listen to DiNozzo, he might be a pain in the ass but he is damn good at his job" DiNozzo faked shock as he heard what the director said as they waited for the elevator doors to open.

"Director Vance, since when have I ever been a pain in the ass?" He quipped and walked into the elevator when the doors opened, not giving the Director or anyone on his team time to say anything. Haley walked inside himself and turned around, hitting the button for the lower levels. "This is going to be fun" DiNozzo smiled "I am driving however" At that point the elevator doors closed and they started to make their way down to the motor pool.

**Enjoyed it? Let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This Chapter is around 1000 words shorter than the last. I pushed myself to try and drag it out, but everything I wanted to happen in this chapter seemed to unfold quicker than I thought. Also I apologise about the portrayal of DiNizzo. I tried my best but I can't help but think I missed by a long shot.**

* * *

><p>The drive over to Quantico was a lot easier than Haley's last trip, mainly because the traffic had died down and this time Haley was not driving. DiNozzo seemed like a good driver, he knew his limits even if he did on occasion like to roar the engine up. Not that Haley cared for it much, purely because it wasn't his car. He was expecting the drive to be quiet but apparently it wasn't going to be like that, DiNozzo seemed to like talking.<p>

"So... get you probie, first ever case and you already have SECNAV talking to you. Not bad, a positive sign for things to come"

"Trust me, I didn't plan for this. I just wanted a simple and easy textbook first case" Haley looked forward, keeping an eye on the traffic even though he wasn't driving.

"There is one thing you learn while doing cases here at NCIS, there is no such thing as a textbook case. There is always one little plot twist" DiNozzo sniggered as he started to think back on some old cases. "Then if you work with Gibbs you have to solve a million cases where nothing is ever straight forward and simple. The person you least suspect is always your delinquent… or not in some cases."

"We don't even know what has happened yet. Hopefully it is nothing bad and this is just a case of mistaken identity and at worst a marine is standing outside Quantico trying to get in without his access card"

"You are way too optimistic for this job y'know? But don't worry, as you work more and more cases you will come to realise that some humans can things that you could never even think of imagining. As you solve more and more cases you find that the optimism gets sucked out of you like blood with a vampire" Haley would look over at DiNozzo with a confused expression plastered to his face. What kind of analogy was that?

"Well, maybe i am just hopeful that things won't end with blood" Haley looked out of the passenger window, noting that they had now turned off the main road and were going down the Quantico base access road.

"Don't get me wrong it is good to be hopeful like that. Guess there's some justice in the world. You suffer, you go through hell. Then happiness comes along for everyone" DiNozzo smiled to himself, clearly smug and impressed with himself. Haley just looked even more confused. DiNozzo turned his head and noticed the perplexed look on Haley's face. "It's a movie reference?" Haley now looked even more confused "The Nights of Cabiria. 1957. Italian classic. One of the best optimism films out there"

"I just never pinned you for a classic international movie type" Haley commented as they had finally reached their destination, the gates of Quantico marine base. DiNozzo pulled the car over into one of the visitor parking bays, both of them exiting the sedan at the same time.

"You clearly haven't been observing me very carefully have you probie? Classic movies is all me. It is what i am about." DiNozzo spoke out in pride about his movie loving culture, the sort of proud voice that to someone like Haley came across as a bit snobbish.

"Really, cause most of the women i speak to the office seem to mention that you like to flirt and pretend you are James Bond" Haley moved forward alongside DiNozzo as they walked the short distance to the main gate.

"Oh come now…" DiNozzo started with his Sean Connery impression. Haley immediately regretted saying anything. "... The ladies love this. Everyone loves a little Bond" Haley couldn't help but smile from his impression. Even if it was slightly cheesy and childish, DiNozzo had managed to both cheer Haley up and annoy him at the same time. The only real positive of this impression however, was the fact that it passed the time it took to walk to the front gates.

Haley knew that Quantico was a hard place to get into, Haley just didn't have any idea as to how hard. For DiNozzo who had been there so many times he had lost count, it was a simple task. All he had to do was show his ID and be searched. For a probationary agent however on their first visit, it was a nightmare. First you had to fill in declaration forms to say you were who you said you were. Then you had to be briefed on base security and protocol. Just to make it worse you had to have a biometric scan at the end, which most likely fed into AFIS. Once he had passed every security check, and proved he was not some gung-ho terrorist trying to destroy a marine base he was allowed inside. The whole time DiNozzo had a childish smirk pasted to his face. Almost as if in some sadistic way he was enjoying it.

After being let in and getting directions to the Master Sergeant, DiNozzo would laugh. "You were having loads of fun there weren't you probie? If it is any help we all had to go through the same thing when we first arrived here. You have to do the same no matter which marine base you go to" The Master Sergeant was in one of of the many firing ranges that littered the it was only a short walk from the main gate. It could've been a lot worse and the range could of been all the way on the other side. As they approached the range, the sound of rifle fire intensified. It seemed the Master Sergeant was busy teaching a group of marines the basics of rifle usage.

"Maybe we should come back later? When he isn't drilling people on how to hold a rifle correctly?" Hayley was not used to the firing of rifles. He had never shot anything more than a pistol in his life and the only reason he had done that was because he had to to join NCIS. It wasn't because he didn't like using a gun. It was more about the confidence he had when using said firearm.

"Nah. We wait. Tip number One: Always speak to the CO as soon as possible. Nine times out of ten they won't be your suspect, but a good CO knows everything about his men and therefore can help give you pointers on where to look. Besides we are in no rush at the moment. Take a second to enjoy the sound of fully automatic weaponry" DiNozzo had seemed to picked up on the fact that Haley wasn't used to the sounds of gunfire. The pair stood casually at the side of the Master Sergeant, making sure that they were in the Sergeants peripheral vision, but not close enough that he could talk without having move. "Let's just wait, he will come to us when he sees that we are not going to go away" At first Haley thought DiNozzo was crazy, but surely enough after a few minutes he ordered his men to make their weapons 'safe' and to leave the range for a few minutes.

Master Sergeant Bristol Clifton seemed almost like a model American marine. Mid-aged with buzzcut hair along with the usual rough face and sculpted muscles. Haley was sure the walk he was doing was designed to intimidate them. While it worked a little on Haley it seemed to have no effect on DiNozzo. As he got closer the Marine would salute, most likely out of protocol than out of respect. There was something about this guy that rubbed Haley the wrong way. Something that made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was the fact he was a killing machine?

"Master Sergeant Clifton?..." DiNozzo started the conversation "I am Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo and this is Probationary Agent Haley… I can't remember his first name… Anyway…" DiNozzo took a step back, leaving Haley to talk to the Sergeant. It would take a few seconds for Haley to get his train of thought together and produce a sentence.

"Has Staff Sergeant Keefe Eliott reported for duty this morning?" The question was direct and to the point. There was no point trying to sweet talk a marine.

"No, he hasn't. I was going to give him until lunch til i reported him UA. Why has something happened?" The Sergeant seemed concerned, though like all marines he had been taught to keep a lid on his emotions and to remain calm. Nothing was worse than a panicked marine while in a firefight. Maybe that was why Haley was so suspicious of him? Not showing emotion was a sign of a guilty person afterall. By that merit however he would have to suspect everyone on this entire marine base.

"We don't know. He seems to have gone missing. Do you know anyone who want to do something to harm or hurt him?" Haley kept the questions on track and direct. Just the way he liked them.

" No Sir, not that i am aware of. I mean everyone one in the squad loves Eliott. Always a bit of a practical joker, always keeping the morale of the men up. I can't think of anyone who would want to hurt him" Now the Sergeant was starting to let some emotions through. His voice was breaking slightly, the wall of toughness was starting to break down as the thought of not seeing his friend again dawned on him. Before Haley could say anything DiNozzo took his step forward again and asked his own question.

"Do you think anyone could have maybe taken one of Eliott's jokes the wrong way and that has spurred them on to actually do something?" Good question. One that Haley had not even considered.

"Well if that was the case then i can most certainly say that it wasn't anyone in my unit. all my men keep their heads screwed on right. I couldn't comment on anyone else though on the base. I never really kept tabs on who else Eliott talked to around here"

"Alright then. Back to it Master Sergeant. We will call you if we need anything else" DiNozzo managed to pull everything off as if he really was James Bond, even to the swivel turn to leave. He just seemed completely comfortable with himself. Haley on the other hand would take a bit longer to turn and walk away, leaving the Master Sergeant to his duties. Haley had to speed walk to catch up with DiNozzo.

"So do you think he is lying then?" Haley asked DiNozzo. As per usual DiNozzo would reply in a suave manner.

"Why would he lie. I think he was being honest and knows nothing. Which is a shame for us" As if on cue DiNozzo's phone would ring. Sliding out of his pocket he would look at the caller ID and grin "I think we are about to get a new lead however" Haley looked perplexed as DiNozzo answered, however everything was about to become clear. "Hey Abbs, had any luck?" It did feel weird not being able to hear the reply, he was able to work out what the reply was however, purely by the look of shock on DiNozzo's face. Something along the lines of '_I don't do luck around here!'_ . He didn't have time to ask however as DiNozzo thrust the phone at him. "It is for you" Haley would grab the phone and smile, even though Abby couldn't see him.

"Hi Abby. Guessing you have managed to find something useful out of those pieces of scrap?"

"Oh yes, a few things actually. Not sure if they are going to help you not. Some of it will be like 'Woah that is groundbreaking' and then the rest will all be like 'meh' " Haley wanted to interrupt, however he knew that it was rude of him and he needed to be extra respectful on his first case. "Anyway, i managed to get an idea of what the vehicle is. based on the two parts i have worked out that it must be a either a 1959 or 1960 Cadillac. The colour if you are interested is known as American Rose. It is a type of vivid red that was really popular back in the late fifties. I decided to look to see if our missing marine owned this beauty and i found out that he most certainly did own such a stunning classic car" Haley was impressed. From just two parts she had managed to find a vehicle match and even go as far as see if it related to the case.

"That is fantastic work there Abby.." Before he could say anymore however she interjected.

"That is not the only thing I have found. The two pieces you found were way too pristine to have been removed in a accident. The boot lid was carefully removed from its hinge. None of the screw holes have been warped in anyway. So I thought that maybe the vehicle was being stripped for parts. It seems I was right, mainly because there was a set of fingerprints on the parts that did not belong to Staff Sergeant Eliott. They belonged to a Mr Finley Harrell. He is a scrap dealer who makes money by buying things off people second hand then he strips them and sells them for a healthy profit. I have texted the address of both Finley and Staff Sergeant Eliott. I hope that helps you Haley" It seemed that Abby really had managed to help things afterall. He was still in shock and awe form how much she had managed to get off the junk he had bought to her. Realistically he wasn't expecting anything and was expecting the case was about to go cold.

"Yeah Abby, that is brilliant. Thank you so much" Abby swiftly hung up and Haley passed the phone back to DiNozzo.

"So what did Abby get for you?" DiNozzo asked. Hayley picked up on the fact that DiNozzo had asked him what 'he' got rather than what 'we' got.

"Well she gave me a few little things, nothing that gives us a break, but at least gives us somewhere to look. She found fingerprints on the parts that match with a local scrap dealer. She also thinks that the car was stripped down for parts"

"Do you think that is why the Staff Sergeant has gone missing? Maybe the dealer whacked him off so he could get the car?" DiNozzo seemed to be asking the right questions. Not the correct questions. Haley could see that DiNozzo was testing him. Seeing if he would grab the bait and try and take a easy way out. Thankfully Haley wasn't going to bite.

"Why kill him though? Surely it would be easy and a lot less messier if you just stole the car in the middle of the night. With the car being broken down you would never find it again" The duo would reach the gates of the marine base and would sign out. This time the process was quick and painless, they were out in less than a minute.

"You have a good point there. Something here doesn't add up. Something is missing" DiNozzo would unlock the sedan and get inside, letting Haley walk around and get into the passenger seat. Once they were both comfortable Haley would speak again.

"I don't think this scrap dealer is a good lead. I think we should go and check the house out first and see if the Staff Sergeant is there" Haley would buckle his belt while DiNozzo broke out into a light chuckle.

"Don't you mean that you should go to the Staff Sergeants home? I was only told to babysit you while you were at Quantico and now, behold! we are on longer in Quantico. My duties are complete" Haley would look over at DiNozzo with an iron stare. Something that didn't suit his face very well.

"But I suppose, being a senior field agent it should be my solemn duty to guide the field agents of tomorrow" DiNozzo still had a childish and goofy smirk glued to his face he was clearly enjoying this way too much. Despite the goofiness there was a aura of respect about the man. He clearly knew what he was doing and his playfulness was just a device to make the people around him more comfortable. Or at least that was what he was trying to achieve.

"Why thank you Lord DiNozzo, where are we off to now then pray tell?" Haley used his posh tone for the last sentence, which worked rather well. DiNozzo just laughed.

"Well I think you were mostly correct. I still think though we should speak to the scrap dealer at some point. Find out how those parts got to where they got to" DiNozzo would turn the engine on and begin the drive out of Quantico and back to DC. For the entire trip DiNozzo probed Haley with questions about his personal life. Questions that Haley quickly diverted, much to the displeasure of DiNozzo. The drive back to DC after that was peaceful for the most part. With the traffic now at full flow, nothing slowed them down.

Pulling up to the house of Master Sergeant Eliott, one thing was clear to Haley. The place where the parts were found was only one block away. Pulling up onto the drive, both men exited the sedan and DiNozzo took a few seconds to look around the place. The house was a classic American suburban house, detached with a garage, white siding and a nice front porch spanning the length of the house. Just like all the other houses in the neighbourhood.

"Looks like a dream doesn't it? Birds chirping, nice well kept lawn. This is the sorta place i wanna retire to. Close to the city, but a nice quiet place to relax." Haley commented as the pair began the walk upto the front door.

"It is alright I suppose. A bit too quiet for my tastes though. Maybe living in an apartment has distorted my perception of suburban living somewhat. To me it is always the 1950's man in a suit going to work at the office sorta thing. Seems too old fashioned for my tastes." Both men climbed up the couple of steps leading up to the porch. Haley was getting ready to knock when DiNozzo silently stopped him and pointed to the door handle. The door was slightly ajar, the wood was also slightly chipped, suggesting forced entry. Haley inwardly sighed to himself as he pulled out his M1911A1 pistol. It was a old style firearm but was one of the few handguns he had felt truly comfortable with. Pushing the door open slowly, making sure not to force the hinges to creak, both DiNozzo and Haley crept inside the house. DiNozzo used hand signals to show he was going to go left and look into the bedroom and bathroom. Haley signalled he was going straight on into the lounge.

Inside the lounge Haley first scanned for targets, which there were none. there was however a lot of bullet holes on the far wall, several pieces of glass furniture were also smashed. It also seemed that every photo frame had been smashed as well, almost as if someone had been in a rage. Something had most certainly gone on here. Turning around and walking over to the dining room shock would take over Haley, freezing him in place. Before he could do anything else he would shout for DiNozzo. DiNozzo walked over to him and looked into the dining room cringing almost at what he saw.

"I will call Gibbs" He holstered his pistol and pulled out his phone as he began to walk outside. His attitude was very calm and collected. He had afterall seen all this before.

"I will call Doctor Mallard" Haley put his own pistol away and pulled his own phone out. His eyes however could never be pulled away from what was staring back at him: The body of a middle aged, bearded man, sitting against a wall in a pool of his own blood. His first dead body. On his first case. Shock set in a bit more. The only peice of relief that consoled Haley was the fact that the body was not that of Staff Sergeant Eliott. So who was this mystery person, and why were they killed in the house of a marine. Haley felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as the thought of having to brief the Director and SECNAV set in.


End file.
